


A Necessary Betrayal

by avislightwing



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: (this is canon y'all come on), Alternate Title: Cool Motive Still Murder, But also, Drunk Sex, Fuck Sazed (The Adventure Zone), Gen, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Non-Explicit Sex, Not What It Looks Like, Poisoning, Sazed is Sympathetic, Taako's a dick, basically they both make Bad Decisions, emetophobia tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2018-03-05
Packaged: 2019-03-27 12:23:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13880796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/avislightwing/pseuds/avislightwing
Summary: The fic I felt needed to be written. A series of moments in Sazed's and Taako's time working together and the bad decisions they made that led to the deaths of forty people.In which neither party is blameless, but onedidactually commit murder, so there's that.





	A Necessary Betrayal

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sorry.

Sazed was twenty-five when he went to see a cooking show and ended up with a job.

It had been all people had been talking about in their podunk town halfway between Neverwinter and nowhere. The stagecoach had rolled into town the day before, all blinking cantrip lights and jaunty music and _Sizzle It Up With Taako_ painted in bright letters on the side. Flyers had appeared all over town that night, papering the walls with the announcement that Taako – you know, from TV? – would be doing a show that night, and all were welcome to come.

Half the town showed up, Sazed included.

From the first moment, Sazed was enchanted. Lanterns burst into flames around the stagecoach, and suddenly the sides opened up into a stage, and there he was.

_Taako._

Sazed felt his mind fill with fireworks mirroring the sparks that surrounded the elf as he stepped out onto the stage. He wore a wide smile and an oversized wizard’s hat of some shifting hue that made Sazed’s eyes hurt to look at. Taako himself hurt to look at, like looking into the sun; he seemed to radiate light, and even as the fireworks continued to explode in Sazed’s brain, he couldn’t look away.

He was a performer, too – there was a certain way he moved, a certain flick of the wrist and turn on his heel and cock of his head that drew the eye. At one point, he caught Sazed’s eye and _winked_. Sazed felt himself blush tomato red, and prayed to the gods that Taako hadn’t noticed.

By the time Taako had taken a flourishing bow and finished passing out samples of his dish – thirty-garlic-clove chicken with an elderberry garnish, the most delicious thing Sazed had ever tasted – Sazed had made up his mind that he would get a place on the stagecoach if it was the last thing he did.

He waited until the crowd had cleared out – he didn’t want to make a fool of himself in front of the entire village, thank you very much – and Taako had started packing up the stagecoach. He gingerly walked out into the middle of the clearing behind Taako and cleared his throat.

Taako heaved a sigh and turned around, tapping his wand – a wooden spoon – against his thigh. “What’ll it be, homie? I – I can probably manage signing a five-by-eight glossy, but then, uh, Taako’s gotta get going. Also, you better not have any ideas unless you want to be Magic Missiled into next week, ya feel?”

“What? No – I mean. Um.” Sazed was blushing again, he was sure. “I was wondering if you were – were looking for an assistant. If you were hiring.”

Taako seemed to actual take him in for the first time – gave him a thorough once-over, eyes narrowed in thought. “An assistant. Depends. What’re your – your qualifications?”

“I have vehicle proficiency, so I could be your driver,” Sazed offered, noting the twitch of Taako’s ears at that. _What else, what else?_ “I could be in charge of the boring stuff. Setting everything up and taking it down. Um, I could even do some prep if need be. I work in a bakery, so I know my way around a kitchen.”

Taako gave a slow nod. “What’s your name, my man?” he asked.

“Sazed. You wouldn’t even have to pay me much – I just want to…” He trailed off helplessly.

“You wanna get out of this shit-hole town,” Taako filled in, and his voice was sharp and knowing, and he didn’t let go of his spoon-wand. “Well, Sazed –” he said Sazed’s name slowly, as if he was trying it on for size, seeing how it tasted in his mouth “– I gotta say, I’m not – these hands weren’t exactly made for manual labor. Throw in bodyguard work? And you got yourself a deal.”

Sazed’s eyes widen. “You really mean it?”

“Trial run,” Taako said casually, flicking his wand so the last panel of the stagecoach slammed shut and locked into place. “I’m headed to Neverwinter next, so if it doesn’t work out, I’ll drop you off there. Either way, you’re out of here.”

“That – that sounds fucking fantastic,” Sazed blurted out.

Taako rolled his eyes. “Keep it together,” he told him. “We’ll be leaving early tomorrow, so get your shit and be here by sunrise. If we’re gonna do this, though, you need to remember a couple things. One, Taako doesn’t do backstory. Two, what I say. Goes. And three, uhhh, I don’t share the spotlight. Capiche?”

“Sure,” Sazed said, nodding eagerly. “I’ll be back tomorrow. You won’t regret this, Taako, I promise!”

“I already do,” Taako muttered, and retreated into his stagecoach.

*****

Sazed was twenty-seven when he crit failed an insight check and got his heart broken.

He hadn’t meant to, and really, that made it sound worse than it was. In all honesty, he should’ve known better, but he and Taako were friends by this point – _friends_ , could you imagine that? – and they’d had a particularly successful show in Goldcliff and made a shitton of cash, and in a fit of unprecedented generosity, Taako had said that drinks were on him.

They were both more than a little drunk when they stumbled back to the stagecoach, and Taako was ugly-laughing in the way he only did when he was either genuinely happy or pretty hammered or both, and Sazed felt those fireworks again. Taako’s ears were perked, and his wizard’s hat was on lopsided, and all his usual sharp edges were dulled by tequila. So was Sazed’s judgement, apparently, because they closed the stagecoach door behind them and Taako cast Light on whatever object was nearest and Sazed kissed him.

Taako stiffened for just a second – in surprise, maybe – but then he was kissing Sazed back, and _gods_ , it was more like electricity than fireworks, lighting up every nerve ending and blanking out any coherent thoughts. After a second, Taako pulled back, and said, sternly but slurred, “Forgot about rule, uh, rule four. No… Taako doesn’t do relationships. Or anything relationship-adjacent. You got that?”

Sazed knew it was a bad idea, but he nodded anyways, because then Taako was kissing him again – he was being kissed by _Taako, from TV, holy shit_ – and that was all that _really_ mattered, right? Besides, Sazed thought as they started to fumble each other’s clothes off and Taako recast the cantrip, throwing flickering light around the stagecoach, this _was_ relationship-adjacent, wasn’t it?

Of course, it all mattered the next morning, when they both woke up with hangovers and no matter how many times Sazed hinted that they might want to talk about what happened, Taako pretended he hadn’t heard him. Sazed told himself that he should’ve expected this – that Taako wasn’t a relationship kind of man and both of them had known it. That he should’ve known better than to sleep with a guy he’d had a crush on since he’d set eyes on him.

It didn’t happen again.

*****

Sazed was twenty-nine when he decided to suggest to Taako that maybe he could do a spot on the show – nothing _too_ big, he thought, maybe even like an intermission? What he wouldn’t tell Taako was that he didn’t want to play second fiddle forever. That maybe one day he could have his own show, and wasn’t this the best place to start? He didn’t think Taako would take that well.

Of course, Taako didn’t take it well anyways.

“Look. Listen. I’ve… I’ve really enjoyed working with you, and I think – I think – what would be great is if we could co-host this thing,” Sazed said. “Just like shared credit. Put – your name’s up on the stagecoach and it looks awesome; but I – what do you think about ‘Sizzle It Up With Taako and Sazed’? Just like, shared credit! Fifty-fifty split! And, you know, we share the workload and, uh, share the – share the glory, you know? Just – what do you think?”

Sazed knew even before he’d finished that it was a no-go. Taako’s ears were down, and his shoulders were set in the way that meant something was bothering him, even though his next words were airy and dismissive.

“Well, that is so groovy, I love that. It trips off the tongue, you know, but, um.” Taako blew a raspberry and shrugged, as if helplessly. “I got all these t-shirts that already say ‘Sizzle It Up With Taako’ and –”

“I can get new t-shirts! I can – y- –I can – I printed those t-shirts for you! So I can print out new t-shirts,” Sazed argued, but he knew it wasn’t about the t-shirts. And he knew he should stop while he was behind – he was breaking another one of the rules – but, hell. In for a silver, in for a gold. Right?

“That’s bad business, Sazed!” Taako said, and he flicked his wand in a way that was not-quite-threatening in that way he had that said _I can do magic, remember? Don’t fuck with me, my man._   
“I – I would love to help you out, but it’s just bad business! ‘Sizzle It Up With Taako’ is the brand! I mean – We’d have to throw all these in the – in the junkpile! And you can’t write on them! There’s not enough puffy paint in the world for all these t-shirts to add ‘Sazed’ on there. Sorry. It’s mainly a merch thing. A license, a merch, then the brand – you know – got the logo painted on the side of the, uhhhh, wagon. Already. So, I don’t know. I’ve got my brand established. I just don’t think it – it jives!”

Sazed deflated a bit, twisting the dish towel between his hands. “Okay. Alright. I get it. I get it. Okay.”

“Do you get it? Because I don’t want to keep having this conversation,” Taako said sharply.

Sazed grimaced. “No, it’s locked in. Definitely. I – I got it, Taako…”

“Excellent,” Taako said, and Sazed went back to cleaning the stagecoach up.

As he cleaned, he could feel something hot and ugly growing in his heart. _Why the fuck not, Taako?_ he wanted to snap. _Is it really that hard to give me a little boost after all I’ve done for you? Is it that hard to even tell the truth to your only friend?_

Were they friends, though? The more Sazed thought about it, the less he was convinced. Friends supported each other. Friends talked to each other. He’d been working with Taako for four years now, and he barely knew a thing about him. He’d invested his heart and soul into Sizzle It Up, and Taako had tossed him lies and pushed him away and shrugged off his requests like they were nothing.

That wasn’t the way a good friend acted.

That wasn’t the way a good _person_ acted.

If he, Sazed, had been in Taako’s place, he would’ve been more than happy to share some of his good fortune. What would it have hurt? The audience liked him, but not more than Taako, surely.

 _Selfish, selfish, selfish,_ Sazed thought resentfully, and the feeling in his heart grew.

*****

Sazed was a week away from his thirtieth birthday when he made the biggest fucking mistake of his life.

He was on the point of running out and stopping it all – Taako would be mad he ruined the show, but he’d be alive. But he couldn’t move. All he could do was sit on the crate, gazing at the bottle in his hand. The clumsily-lettered label whispering _ARSENIC_ in his ear.

Then, suddenly, the door slammed open, and he dropped the bottle (it shattered), and there was Taako.

And he was _alive_.

“We gotta go,” Taako said, and his ears were pressed flat to his skull, eyes wide in panic. “They’re – listen, I fucked something up, we got to _go_.”

Without a word, Sazed grabbed the essentials, packed the stagecoach in under a minute, and got in the driver’s seat. Taako had already closed himself in the coach, sharp-fingered hands clutching at the brim of his hat.

As he drove, Sazed’s mind spun. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It was supposed to be Taako – just Taako. But even as they’d gotten the hell out of Glamour Springs, he’d heard the screams.

They were dying, and it was his fault.

Sazed didn’t stop for thirty-six hours, apart from pulling over occasionally to give the horse a rest. Finally, they found themselves in a small clearing in the middle of a dense forest, and Sazed pulled on the reins. “Taako?” he called back, and his voice was shaking. “You – good back there?”

The door to the stagecoach slammed open, and he turned to see Taako stumble out, fall to his hands and knees, and retch.

Sazed set his jaw, hopped down from the driver’s seat, and went to Taako’s side. “What. The fuck. Happened,” he said. _Why aren’t you dead? You’re the one who’s supposed to be dead. No one else. Much less –_ Sazed almost felt like throwing up himself. There’d been forty people at that show.

“The elderberries,” Taako choked out, wiping the back of his hand over his mouth. “Must’ve – _fuck_ – accidentally transmuted the – the elderberries to deadly nightshade. Only thing I can think of. Would’ve noticed anything else. _Fuck_ , Saz. They all, died, fuckin’ all died –” He shuddered, head tipped forwards. “Was anyone following us?”

“Not that I saw.”

“The militia’ll come after us. Me,” Taako said. “Gotta keep moving…”

“We can stay here for the night,” Sazed said. “There’s a town near here, less than a mile. We can sleep here and then stop in the town on the way out tomorrow, stock up on supplies.”

Taako nodded, made a sound like a sob but wasn’t, because Taako didn’t cry. “Sure. Sounds… yeah.”

Neither of them felt much like eating anything, so Sazed built a small fire and Taako wrapped himself in their blanket and wedged himself in the roots of a nearby tree and shut his eyes tightly.

Sazed watched him.

It took three hours for Taako to sleep – really sleep, not just trance. As soon as Sazed was reasonably sure Taako was out for the count, he shot to his feet. Gathered his things, and, for good measure, anything valuable he could find in the stagecoach (he deserved that much, didn’t he?). Loaded it all onto their horse, led it out of the clearing.

Taako would be fine. He was sneaky. They wouldn’t find him. And even if they did – well. Too bad.

Sazed was done with Taako – washed his hands of him. The fireworks had gone out, and all that was left was dark, smoke-smelling silence. How could he have ever admired the elf? How could he have ever overlooked Taako’s cruelty, his selfishness? Maybe he hadn’t exactly been the one who killed Glamour Springs, but he could’ve been. He believed it had been his fault without hesitation. He was _capable_ of murder – Sazed had been driven to it. That was the difference.

Still, Sazed couldn’t help one last glance back at the small, huddled shape of Taako, nearly indistinct in the dying firelight. Then he shook himself and headed into the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell at me on tumblr [@birdiethebibliophile](birdiethebibliophile.tumblr.com). Or leave a comment and make my day!


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